Tag! You're It
by TwilightLinedInSilver
Summary: "TELL ME ALREADY!" Pony exclaimed shaking Two-Bit by the shoulders. Two-Bit laughing harder than ever replied "She was your first kiss, Kid!" Pony's face contorted up in even more confusion. She was most certainly NOT his first kiss.


A/N. Hey guys, this is my first time posting anything so go easy on me.

Disclaimer:Roses are red, Violets are blue, I don't own the Outsiders and neither do you! (unless your S.E. Hinton, in that case you do!)

"Hey Steve, can I borrow a nickel? I promise to pay you back." asked Two-Bit while batting his eyes jokingly.

"Ha right, and why would I give your lazy bum my hard earned money?" Steve responded while cleaning the counter.

Two-Bit and Ponyboy were leaning against the counter at the DX, while Steve was working the register. It was unusually hot outside for late September, and the pair had wandered in the station in search of relief from the scorching heat.

"Oh come on Stevie, it's for the kid. He's had a serious with drawl from his Pepsi addiction lately." Two-Bit pestered, beginning to irritate Steve.

Steve smirked and replied "Oh in that case...no."

"Whatever I'll just steal one from your stingy butt later" mumbled Two-Bit grumpily.

"What was that?" Steve inquired.

"Nothing." Two-Bit hastily responded while nervously laughing.

"Oh crap!" Pony exclaimed. He had spotted a certain greaser girl was headed in his direction, and he really didn't want to see her. He quickly hopped over and ducked under the counter, almost knocking over Steve in the process.

"Oi!" Steve said balancing himself, "What's your problem?"

"Yeah, Pony you act like you got a B on your report card and now Darry's after your butt!" cracked Two-Bit while quirking an eyebrow at him. Pony sighed and put his hands on top of the slightly wet, thanks to Steve, linoleum. Then brought his head up, so just his eyeballs were peeking over. He sighed, content the girl hadn't seen him. While holding his position turned to explain to Steve and Two-Bit about what had caused him to react like this.

"It's Angelia Shepard man. I think she's after me. I mean all I did was help her out when a couple of jerks at school were giving her trouble. Now it's like she assumes I like her. I've tried to drop subtle hints at Curly when we hang together to get him to make her stop following me, but both of their skulls are too thick to take a hint. This is the third time this week she's sought me out." Pony rushed out hurriedly.

"Poor, poor naive Pony." tisked Two-Bit, "It's a shame you brought this on yourself."

"What are you talking about?" Pony demanded defensively.

"Kid, do you honestly think Angelia Shepard of all people couldn't hold her own against some stupid kids at school?" Steve questioned flashing his signature smirk, " She wanted you to help her out, to see if you cared about her."

Pony thought about it for a moment. Suddenly he felt sick to his stomach, maybe Angelia had planned it all out. He most certainly did not like or care about her. He had just felt sorry for her is all. 'Great, this is just freakin' great.' Pony thought to himself.

"Don't look now Pony, but here comes the love stricken teen herself." Two-Bit warned. Pony quickly dived back down under the counter. He stared at Steve and pleaded with his eyes and mouthed 'Don't tell her I'm here'. Keeping the smug look on his face, Steve just shrugged down at Pony.

_Ding,Ding. _The bell rang, when the door to the DX opened. Angelia strutted up to the counter next to Two-Bit. Smacking her gum with her heavily lipsticked covered lips she asked, "Hey Randel, Matthews y'all seen Pony around?" She blew a bubble and it popped in Two-Bits face. Two-Bit looked slightly disgusted and leaned as far away from her as possible.

Steve started to point Pony about to her, but stopped himself at the last second. He was going to make the kid owe him. So instead he spat, "What do I look like, his keeper or somethin'?

"Have you seen him or not moron?" Angelia sneered back at him.

"Why you little..." Steve started to tell her off, but was cut-off by Two-Bit.

"That would be a negative Shepard."

Steve recomposed himself, angry that he had let her get him riled up. He gave her a big, tight, fake smile and said " Why don't you check the book store, I think the stupid bookworm mentioned something about heading down there today."

From underneath the counter Pony's face scrunched up in anger towards Steve's 'stupid bookworm' comment. He punched Steve hard in the shin. Steve's face gave a quick flicker of pain before he promptly kicked Pony as hard as he could, all while he maintained his smile. Pony gave a whispered, "Aaawf!" Steve had knocked the breath outta him.

"Yeah and if he ain't there check the track, the kid's always practicing to keep in shape." Two-Bit said smoothly. Angelia eyed them both with a skeptical look on her face. After what seemed like a few minutes of justing standing and staring at each other, Angelia gave up and started walking towards the door. She threw a hand up and without looking back called out "Thanks boys."

The door bell let out another _Ding,Ding, _when she left the DX. Just a few seconds later, Pony hopped up. He wiped the sweat from his brow and sighed heavily in relief. And jumped back over the counter. Pony turned to his buddies and said " Thanks guys."

Two-Bit was laughing like a hyena by now, because of how strange Pony was acting. "Man Pony, seventeen years old and you still can't talk to girls." He said poking Pony playfully.

"Shut up! I can too talk to girls, just not her." Pony huffed.

"I still remember the first time you met her too. She had the hots for you back then too." Two-Bit said trying to appear deep in thought, a hard feat for him.

Confused about what Two-Bit was implying, he inquired, "What do you mean?" Two-Bit and Steve looked at each other and burst out laughing. Now Pony was getting that worried sick feeling again in his stomach. "Tell me!" he said sternly.

"You mean you don't remember?" Steve said still laughing.

"Remember what?" Still boggled by what they were talking about.

"Make since you might block it out, you were only 5 at the time." Two-Bit said still delaying letting him in on what he and Steve's conversation was about.

"TELL ME ALREADY!" Pony exclaimed shaking Two-Bit by the shoulders. Two-Bit laughing harder than ever replied "She was your first kiss, Kid!" Pony's face contorted up in even more confusion. She was most certainly NOT his first kiss, Gayle McCollin was when he was fifteen. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks followed by a grand piano and a bus. He remembered now.

_Pony was walking alongside his two brothers, Soda and Darry, while they headed to the park. They were meeting Soda's and Darry's friends Tim, Keith, and Steve to toss around the football a little. And Pony's friend Johnny and Tim's brother Curly would be there too. Pony knew they wouldn't let him and Curly play saying they were to young to understand the game, and wouldn't let Johnny because of his size. So usually they just went and played on the swing set together or something._

_By the time they had arrived everyone was already there. Darry headed over to talk to Keith and Tim. Before going over to Steve, Soda's hugged me and told me to stay out of trouble while they played football. Then he ran over and tackled Steve. Pony had spotted Johnny and Curly in their usual meeting place. He began making his way over to them, but before he got there he noticed something out of place. There was another person with Curly and Johnny._

_Upon arriving at the swing set, he realized not only was it a new person, it was a girl. She was wearing a white t-shirt, a pair of old faded jeans, and had a baseball cap on with a ponytail coming out the back. He decided to sit on the swing next to Johnny, opposite of where Curly and the girl were swinging. _

"_Hey Pony!" Johnny said smiling at his friend._

_Curly and the girl looked up when they heard Johnny say his name. The girl just stared as the twisted in her swing, while Curly said, " Hey Curtis, nice of you to join us." ,trying to sound like his older brother. The girl's eyes were still boring at Pony and he was beginning to feel uncomfortable._

"_By the way this is my younger sister, Angelia." Curly said, motioning to the girl. The girl still remained silent and staring._

"_So what do Y'all want to do today?" Curly asked. "Swing, climb trees, play in the fountain? Curly suggested. _

"_Naah, we did all that last time." Johnny said sighing. It really was becoming hard to think up stuff to do anymore. We pretty much always swang. Pony got in trouble for climbing tree because his mommy said " You could get hurt." And last time when they played in the fountain some man in a uniform yelled at them to get out._

"_I know!" exclaimed Angelia exciting, keeping her eyes trained on Pony. "Let's play tag!" Pony liked tag. He was pretty fast for a five year old, but was still unsure about playing with a girl. Johnny and Curly seemed to like the idea and agreed we should play._

"_Okay, Angelia, your it first because you know what they say," Curly said smirking, " Ladies first."_

_Angelia just smiled and replied, " Fine with me."_

"_On your mark. Get ready. Set. Go!" Curly screamed taking off and heading towards the trees, while Pony and Johnny headed towards the fountain. Pony was a few feet a head of Johnny, being quicker than him. He began to notice Johnny falling quite a bit behind so he turned around to make sure he was okay. Just as he turned around, he saw Angelia catching up to Johnny. 'Oh no!' he thought. 'She gonna tag him for sure.' But to his surprise she whip right past Johnny and now was on a quick path towards Pony! _

_Pony began to run as fast as he could. He ran to the edge of the park and then had to zig zag a bit so he could get past Angelia and run in the opposite direction. He was distraught. Then Curly came into view, he thought 'Thank goodness, now she'll go after him instead." But he was wrong again. She quickly zoomed past Curly and kept right on Pony's tail. He was now heading into the area where his brother's and their friends were playing football. He knew he should stay out of their way, but this was his only option at the moment._

_The older Curtis brothers were just about to make a play when all of a sudden, Keith Matthews shouted while laughing "Hey look!" pointing to their little brother Ponyboy who was frantically waving his arms around while running towards where they were playing ball. They were confused about what he was running from, till they saw Tim's little sister running after him arms outstretched. Pony whirled past them screaming " Leave me alone! Tag Curly or Johnny!" But she continues her pursuit on their brother. By now everyone was laughing at the pair, their game long forgotten._

_Pony was still sprinting as hard as possible when all of a sudden he tripped and tumbled to the ground. Then he felt someone flip him over onto his back. Angelia Shepard was now sitting on top on and smiling down at him. She leaned down and placed her lips against the boy's beneath her and then said "Tag, you're it."_

_Pony immediately pushed her off and began vigorously wiping off his lips. 'How disgusting! All girls have cooties, cept my mommy' he thought. Then he noticed his brother's and their friends pointing and laughing at him. Curly joined in, while Johnny just blushed. 'Oh no!'They all saw it!' He thought. He hadn't realized it, but Angelia was now holding Pony's hand. Pony quickly ripped his hand from hers and ran over to Soda and began pleading to go home._

"That time does not count!" Pony exclaimed coming back to the present, "I was five and she attacked me!"

"Sure it counts!" shouted Soda who had heard the whole conversation from inside the garage. He appeared around the corner from the shop garage. His shirt was covered in oil and he was wiping to grease from his hands. He had joined in on Two-Bit and Steve's laughing. Pony just put his head in his hands.

"Come on Pony, we're just teasing ya," Soda said and placed a hand on his brother's shoulder, "Let's go get you a Pepsi and something to eat my shifts over now."

"I'm buying!" Two-Bit shouted.

"I thought you didn't have any money?" Steve questioned.

"I told you I'd just get it from you later!" Two-Bit shouted waving Steve's wallet laughing while he sprinted out the door of the DX.

A/N. So what do you think. There are probably mistakes and stuff but oh well. I know it's not the greatest in the world, but I'm new to writing and am hoping to get better! Feel free to review:D


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